Blind Faith
by justtaken
Summary: Clint and Natasha find themselves in a tricky situation, and this time it's not Budapest. Clint has to find away to help not only Natasha cope with her new complication, but find away to help himself deal with it as well.
1. Chapter 1

"And that is why we remember Budapest differently" I finished with a chuckle which set the whole dinner table into a spiral of laughter.

"Don't even get me started on the time Bruce tried to invent stretchy pants for the other guy" Tony started.

"How about we save that story for another day Tony" Bruce laughed cutting off Tony quickly his cheeks turning red as a strawberries.

"Fair enough," Tony laughed "but, this story is _so _being told eventually Bruce". Tony had been inviting the team up to his place every Friday for the past month. He calls it a "catch up night", but to be completely honest, I think he is lonely. Pepper had left to go on some big trip without him, and the best way he saw to cope was to have everyone come over. Natasha had always thought it was a silly that we had to be at Stark's place _every_ Friday night, but she would always walk out of the door with me anyway because she, just like Tony, did not enjoy being alone.

She would never let anyone know that though. As far the general public was concerned she was _the _Black Widow. She was emotionless, and wouldn't let anything get in between her and a mission. She was heartless, and saw nothing but the issue ahead. She thought only about how to solve the problem at hand, and the only time she thought of others was to protect the team.

This however, as I said before, is how the general public saw her. Not how the team saw her, and definitely not how I saw her. To me she was beautiful, as perfect as a rose. She was concerned for everyone's well-being at all times. She was ready to risk her life for anyone else's. She was perfect, and she was mine.

"We really better be heading back Tony, it's getting a little late" Natasha stated from across the table. She looked over to me and smiled.

"Yes Tony, we do need to be heading home." I added hoping that if I said something Tony might let us head back to our floor.

"But my fellow companions, this festivity has only just begun!" Thor bellowed from behind a mug of beer.

"No Thor it's alright," Tony started, "I'm sure Clint and Natasha have a perfectly good reason they need to leave" Tony delivered, ending his statement with a wink.

"Now, now Tony is that any of _your _business?" Steve asked trying to defend us, but still smiling about Tony's previous statement.

"Well Cap, I do see your point, but where is the fun in that?" Tony shot back at Steve. I looked over at Natasha as Steve and Tony kept bickering like children, and she took the cue to grab her things.

"See you later boys," I called as we were getting into the elevator. "Don't be afraid to swing by anytime! Remember fourth floor!"

"I think I know what floor you live on considering I designed the damn place" Tony called back.

"Geeze Tony he was just telling everyone-"Steve was cut off by the closing of the elevator.

"Those two, what are we going to do with them?" Natasha laughed as we headed back to our floor. "Clint?" She asked halfway down.

"Yeah?"

"I went to the doctor yesterday."

"I know Natasha; you were gone for 2 hours."

"Well I have to go again tomorrow."

"Okay" We both liked to keep the conversations short. We said what needed to be said, and that was all. Sometimes we wouldn't speak for a whole day. Not because we didn't enjoy each other's company, we just always knew what the other wanted without any verbal acknowledgement. That was another way we were kind of funny with each other. We always just knew.

"Well, it isn't the same doctor" She started again. Something wasn't right.

"What is wrong?"

"I'm sure it's nothing. I just need to get my eyes checked out that's all." She still seemed a little off, but if she didn't want to go into detail I knew better than anyone else that I couldn't make her talk.

"Okay Natasha." I said as the elevator opened to the fourth floor.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey everyone! I hope you enjoy this next chapter. Please review to let me know what you're thinking(: **

Natasha nodded to me as she was getting ready to walk out of the building. I still knew that something was wrong, but she didn't want to talk about it, so we didn't.

"Off to the eye doctor." She told me as she opened the elevator to go downstairs. She was looking to the floor as she told me, and I knew she was hiding something at that point. She would never look you directly in the eyes if she wanted to keep a secret. It was her fatal flaw. She could tell you information all day and night, but unless you were looking in her eyes you would never know the truth from a lie.

"Well, call me if you need anything" I responded. She smiled at me before she left, and then she was gone. Immediately after the elevator closed I jumped off of the couch and started looking around for anything weird.

"Jarvis, scan the floor for anything Natasha brought in after her first doctor's appointment."

"Scan commencing Mr. Barton" I knew she was hiding something, and if she wouldn't tell me I would have to figure it out myself. I wouldn't let her know of course, if I did find anything. That would just set her off. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay. If anything ever happened to her, I can't even imagine what I would do with myself.

"3 new items found Mr. Barton. Located in the third drawer from the left in the desk in the work room sir."

"Thanks Jarvis." I would like to think that I took my time to walk over to the desk, but in actuality I sprinted.

"My, my, my Clint! No need to run away from me! Just came to visit is all." Tony smiled as he saw me running to the other room.

"Oh hey Tony. I wasn't running from you, I just had something important…" I trailed off. "Why didn't Jarvis tell me you were coming?" I asked.

"Just thought I would surprise you is all. Bruce will be down in a second. We heard Natasha was out, so here I am!" Tony had this thing, where he thought that whatever he felt everyone else must be feeling that same thing. I understand that Tony had nothing to do without Pepper, but my life doesn't stop when I am not with Natasha. I'm pretty good at empathy, but not as a 24 hour job. I guess I would just have to wait to finish my little investigation another time.

"So Tony how's Pepper doing?" I could tell Tony didn't want to talk about Pepper since he didn't respond immediately.

"I think she's doing fine. I haven't heard from her since last Saturday." There was a sad look in his eyes. I could tell that he really loved her, and he really missed her.

"I'm sorry to hear that Tony. Can I get you a-"I was cut off by the ringing of the phone. "One second Tony." The caller I.D said that Natasha was calling. If I wasn't sure something sketchy was going on before, now I was certain. She never called while she was out unless something was wrong.

"Clint?" Natasha choked out from the other end of the phone line.

"Natasha, what's wrong?" I asked.

"I need you to come get me. The doctor told me that I am not supposed to drive myself around anymore." She had definitely been crying. That killed me more than anything else. I would come and pick her up anytime of the day anywhere, but she was crying and that pushed me over the edge.

"Natasha, don't cry. What is going on? Why can't you drive?" _Oh my God. This is going to be bad. _

"Clint I… I'm going blind"


	3. Chapter 3

"Clint? Clint, man you need to get up." Tony was waving my hand back and forth in front of my face. I inhaled a deep breath and took a second to survey my surroundings. Still on the fourth floor, Tony is _obviously _still here, and there is a phone lying on the floor next to me.

"Tony, what happened?"

"Is Natasha pregnant or something because you took a dive to the floor after she told you something? Don't worry I would have reacted the same way with new _that _bad. " Good old Tony, always the jokester.

"No, it… it's worse than that. How long was I down for?" At that moment I suddenly realized my face and the upper half of my shirt was drenched in some liquid. For Tony's sake I sure as hell hoped it was water.

"Yeah man sorry about the whole water thing," _Good_ "I just thought it would get you up faster, and it did! You were down for about three minutes tops? Bruce came down and saw you like this, so he ran back to his floor for a medical kit or something."

"Listen Tony, I have to go get Natasha from the doctor. I don't need a med kit, I just need a car ready after I change my shirt."

"Fair enough. Whatever you say boss." For some reason I could tell that Tony knew what was happening. I ran to my room threw on the closest shirt, and hopped in the elevator to go down to the parking lot. Waiting for me at the bottom floor was a Hennessey Venom GT.

"It's the fastest one I got. I figured you needed to be there quick, so here you go."

"Thanks Tony, not just for the car, but for waking me up and everything." I was telling him as I jumped in the driver's seat.

"No problem chief. Tell Nat that I said hello." He called to me as I was pulling out of the parking lot.

My mind was spinning, and for a moment I was really afraid that I was going to lose it again. _NOT IN THIS CAR. _I drove as fast as I could to the eye doctor to get Natasha. That's when the worst thought hit me. _How is Natasha going to handle this?_ At that moment I realized that nothing would ever be the same again. She would still be on the team, but what could she really do? I would still be in love with her, don't get me wrong, but I haven't the slightest idea on how to even start to help her.

"And so it begins." I told myself as I pulled inform of the doctor's.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello all! Enjoy this next chapter, and let me know what you think so I can improve(: **

I jumped out of the car as quickly as I could. There were only a few cars in the parking lot, just enough to get a close spot to the door. I ran through the door and looked for Natasha. I couldn't find her, so I started making my way to the only set of the doors in the room. I had only made it halfway there before a short receptionist placed herself in front of me.

"Excuse me sir, I don't believe you are a woman, I may be wrong, but please wait until your name is called."

"No I am not a woman, but this is serious. My girlfriend needs to be picked up, and I don't know where she is."

"Well sir, I don't have a list of all the relationships in New York, so if you could be a bit more descriptive that would help."

"Oh, well, her name is Natasha Romanov, and she has red hair, and she is beautiful, and can you please help me find her?"

"Fair enough, sir. Follow me." She took me through the doors, and it's probably a good thing she stopped me because it was like a labyrinth back there. After three lefts and four rights I found myself face to face with Natasha in this dismal looking little room with two of the three lights working.

"Natasha" I smiled

"Clint" She responded looking to the floor. I lifted her chin, and she was looking me right in the eyes. I found myself wondering how many more times she would be able to see my eyes and I brought her in closer.

Our lips were connected, like a lock that couldn't be broken, and I tongues were dancing. Her hands found themselves intertwined with mine. In that moment it was just a beautiful girl that I couldn't believe was mine, and me. I would've been happy if that moment never ended, but the receptionist wasn't too thrilled with the whole ordeal. After about the fifth time we stopped, and just smiled.

As the woman showed us out from the maze, Natasha and I held hands. I was terrified, but I couldn't let Natasha know that. She was probably scared beyond belief, and she could read me too well to not recognize my false smile.

We left and started making our way to the car, and Natasha stopped. She looked at me, then at the ground and whispered:

"What do we do now?" I could have sworn that I saw a single tear fall from her eyes, one singular tear.

"We keep going" I told her as I wrapped my arms around her.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry I haven't updated in a while, summer work just sucks really. BUT here is the next chapter! Let me know what you all think, and finally, enjoy. **

It was really hard to tell what was the most difficult in the two years before Tasha's complete blindness.

First it was the first mission for S.H.I.E.L.D she wasn't capable of attending.

"Alright team, we all need to be focused, and at the top of our game. Loki's back and he knows what we have to dish out this time." Captain America reported to his teammates. "Hawkeye and Black Widow, you take the tower, everyone knows you work best together." He stated. "Thor and Hulk work together as much as you can. Iron Man, you're with me."

"Whatever you say Spangley!" Tony proclaimed closing his helmet. Tasha and I took off toward Stark tower.

"Clint, I'll take the south and you take north, I've got your back." This was how we started every mission, A pep talk from Cap, breaking up into the same groups, then Tasha taking the south. I liked it this way. I felt most safe with Natasha having my back compared to anyone else.

But there was something a little different about today. There was a bit of a shaky start when we were getting ready this morning. She was searching all up and down the floor looking for the red bracelet I gave her that she wears on every mission. After about 10 minutes I realized what she was looking for, and it was on the counter in the bathroom where she gets ready each morning. In a way I was surprised that she missed it, but before I said anything I caught my tongue and realized I shouldn't. She didn't want anything said about it just as much as I didn't want to believe what was happening.

One of my favorite things about Tasha was her ability to make even fighting look like a ballet routine. If I wasn't busy fighting my own bad guys I would watch her more because it's like watching a performance, just with more dead people.

As we were fighting a bunch of Loki's goons I took a glace over at Tasha in between arrow shots, and I realized something was right. Her movements weren't as fluid, and she had almost gotten hit by a few stray bullets.

"I'm coming to back you up Natasha!" I shouted. I knew she needed me, even if she didn't. We were fighting side by side, just like in Budapest. Then all of a sudden a large amount of Loki's army came at us at once, and I had this feeling of impending doom. The bullets started coming faster and more frequently. Thor had joined us and started picking some of them off with lightning. Natasha was looking all around, but wasn't getting out of the way of the gun fire. The bullets missing her by pure luck. All of a sudden I noticed several guns pointed directly at her head from across the tower. I tried to jump in the way, but the last thing I remembered was a sharp pain in my shoulder, a Hulk landing in front of us, and darkness.


	6. Chapter 6

After putting another team member in potential danger Nick Fury thought it would be best to keep Tasha out of missions, and have her stay at S.H.I.E.L.D and help out with some task around there. No matter how much I begged Nick Fury to let her come along, no matter how much I told him it was my own fault I was injured, no matter how much I told him that I needed her there, his judgment stood solid.

"Had you been seriously damaged Clint, we would have been short two team members. We can no longer take that risk. I understand that each of you risks your lives every day for this job, but we can't have you taking extra risks to keep Natasha safe as well as yourself. I promise you she will be safest here." Nick Fury told me several different ways on several different occasions, but I just couldn't accept it. I would no longer be fighting beside, not only my fighting partner, but my best friend. The numbers would be odd. I would have to go by myself. Who would cover the south? I tried to push it from my mind, and just move on.

"There are still a lot of things Tasha can still do" I would tell myself daily.

The next incident was around 4 months later. Instead of mission she stayed with Maria and Coulson, and helped with monitoring potential threats. After I came back from shawarma with the guys to celebrate victory, I drove to S.H.I.E.L.D to pick up Tasha. When I walked in and asked where she was nobody claimed to know. I went to the office area, where no one ever was, and I knew Tasha was there. Something was obviously going on, and she didn't want anyone to know what was happening.

In the back corner of the office curled up in a tight ball was my Natasha with silent tears streaming down her face. I ran over without saying anything, we didn't need words. I just held her, so she knew everything was going to be alright no matter what was wrong.

"I can't do it anymore Clint. I there is nothing else I can do. Even the stupidest tasks I can't accomplish without knocking something over, or dropping something. I can't anymore Clint, and I don't think you can handle this any better than I can."

"Tasha, I will always be there for you. I don't care if you're deaf, blind, and can't speak. I will always love you. Never forget that. Never"

"I love you so much Clint."

At that moment everything around us was gone. We weren't in an office, we were just us together forever in a bunch of nothingness, and in a way it was a perfect yet imperfect moment. In that flawed yet flawless moment I knew there was something I had to do.


	7. Chapter 7

I dropped Natasha back at the apartment and asked Tony to wait with her while I stepped out. There wasn't really much she could do on her own anymore without someone there with her.

"I'll be back soon Natasha, promise." I grabbed a slip of paper off the counter with some measurements on it on my way out.

"So," Tony started, "how's about we talk about some embarrassing stories. With Clint around I'm sure you've got some great ones."

Natasha laughed. Tony was extraordinarily good at making people laugh, even when they feel like they could never laugh again. That was the main reason I chose Tony to hang out with Natasha most times.

"Well let's have 'em then." Tony smiled

"I don't know Tony. I had a bad haircut once I guess"

"Come on, I KNOW you've got something better than that. How about something about Clint? He's not here to defend himself the timing is PERFECT."

Natasha smiled that gorgeous smile and began.

"Well, back when Clint and I first started socializing with our little group outside of SHIELD missions, Bruce had planned a little picnic. You were out of town with Pepper, so you wouldn't remember this, but Clint was getting ready when Steve came in to Clint's apartment through the elevator and saw him changing. Clint started yelling at Steve, and Steve turned so red I was pretty sure he was going to burst into flames. So anyway, Steve saw him changing, so Clint chased after him in nothing but his briefs. I'm still not sure how it happened, but somehow Clint managed to get locked outside and Steve said the only way he would be allowed back in is if he sat at the table with the rest of the group and ate a meal. So, that's why we like to have people check before stopping by."

Tony laughed and laughed and eventually Natasha began laughing as hard as Tony was. It had been a long time since she had laughed this hard.

"I'm not even sure why I told you that story. Clint would kill me if he knew!" Natasha giggled through her tears of laughter.

And, in general, Natasha wouldn't have told Tony this story, it was unlike her to act this way around anyone but Clint, but she needed to get her mind off of the horrible day she just had.

When they both stopped laughing Tony gave her a sideways look and held her hands. Not in a romantic way, not even in a Tony Stark mocking sympathy sort of way, in a genuine honest way. Then both knew she was going blind, they both new there was no way to fix it, but in that moment, on the couch in Clint and Natasha's joint apartment, that if either of them ever needed a laugh or a good talk, however out of character it may be, the other would be there.

In that moment Clint knocked on the door

Tony went to open it, and was surprised that he hadn't just opened the door himself.

"Sorry guys, I locked myself out, left the keys on the counter."

"Glad to see that you at least have your pants on this time." Tony said with a smirk.

Clint looked directly at Natasha.

"All I've done for you and this is the thanks that I get. I leave for thirty minutes and I come back to you sharing my darkest story with Stark." Clint stated with a grin. "If you weren't such a fantastic gal I'd have to rethink this next move."

Tony knew exactly what was about to happen and took a seat on a bar stool for the best view in the house.

Clint walked over to the couch, and Natasha stood up thinking Clint would kiss her eyes, as he usually did upon arrival home, but this time he knelt to the ground.

"Natasha I want you to close your eyes. I want you to close them and remember this moment by the way it feels." Clint placed a ring in her hand. She got a felt it on her fingertips. It wasn't a ring she had ever worn before. It was new.

"Clint what is happening" Natasha began as she started opening her eyes.

"Keep your eyes closed Tasha, and take it all in." Clint took the ring from her hand, and placed it on her left ring finger. "Tasha, I have loved you from the day I met you, and I want you to know that nothing will ever change that. You are beautiful, and smart, and sexy, and no one else could ever compare to you. I know that things are a little rocky right now, but I want to be with you forever in the good times, and the bad. I mean hell; every day is a good day as long as I'm with you. So Natalia Alianovna Romanova, will you marry me, and make every day for the rest of my life a great day?"

"Absolutely, Clint. I wouldn't want anything more." She cried as she flung herself into Clint's arms knowing that even though she could barely see him that he would always be there to catch her.

"To good days" Clint whispered in her ear.

"To good days" Natasha had never been happier.


End file.
